iPhone 12 killer feature revealed — and it's bad news for Android phones

The iPad Air 4 just stole the thunder from the upcoming iPhone 12 past something no other Apple device has done in over 9 years: become the latest generation of Apple tree-made processors before the iPhone.

Revealed at the Apple Event, the new iPad Air 4 features the new A14 Bionic chip, and Apple says it'southward the "about powerful chip e'er made." As the first 5-nanometer processor in a consumer device, the A14 Bionic is promising a serious hike in performance over the A13 Bionic found on the iPhone 11 and iPhone xi Pro, as well as all Android phones.

Merely it's about more than simply sheer horsepower.

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This move to the 5nm process node means Apple has squeezed 11.8 billion transistors into its new scrap. That means the half dozen-core CPU will evangelize a 40% boost in performance over the A12 flake in the previous iPad Air. And a new four-core GPU will deliver a 30% hike in graphics performance.

The A13 Bionic already beats all of the best Android phones in terms or performance, including the new Galaxy Note 20 Ultra with Qualcomm'due south Snapdragon 865 Plus bit. And the A14 Bionic should only create more altitude between Apple and the balance of the field.

Apple iPad Air 4 — (Image credit: Apple)

Numbers are all well and adept, only they mean nothing in unless they result in noticeable real-globe performance. Apple tree touted that the A14 Bionic will let for games to be run at high resolution and fast frame rates, as well every bit handle 4K video editing and creating detail-heavy digital fine art in existent-time.

One game developer showed off how their game War Robots will get a very noticeable boost in graphical fidelity when running on an A14 Bionic, consummate with more dynamic shadows and more realistic reflection. And the game volition run at 60 frames per second even with 6 on half-dozen multiplayer.

A14 Bionic gameplay graphics — (Image credit: Apple)

The A14 Bionic is too a lot smarter than its predecessor as information technology has double the Neural Engine cores. That will allow it to handle xi trillion operations per second and thus ii times the machine learning functioning of the A13 Bionic. This translates to smarter and faster AI-centric performance, which means Siri should go better at understanding natural language and image recognition is expected to go a heave.

Third-political party apps volition besides benefit from the machine learning upgrade. For case, in a Pixelmator demo we saw how y'all can crop in very shut on an image, and the ML Super Resolution feature will heighten the photograph on the wing. It'due south all well-nigh edifice more intelligence direct into apps.

iPad Air A14 Bionic Pixelmator — (Paradigm credit: Apple tree)

This is a critical distinction for the manner Apple approaches making fries. Information technology works with both Apple's hardware and software teams, as well as 3rd-party developers to determine the types of experiences they want to evangelize. It so custom designs its chips to bring these ambitions and new features to life.

Djay Pro app A14 Bionic iPad Air 4 — (Image credit: Apple)

A key case of this is the Djay Pro 2 app, which enables users to seamlessly mix music in their drove and add or remove everything from the vocals to the drums without missing a beat. And they're adding new feature thanks to Apple'south vision framework for the A14 Bionic that lets you lot scratch records simply by waving your hands on the air.

Apple is also giving the A14 Bionic the "latest" image betoken processor, which suggests that the photography capabilities of the iPhone 12 volition get a boost. And the Secure Enclave has been tweaked to evangelize a snappier Impact ID response, so nosotros would expect a quicker Face ID for the iPhone 12.

Patently, Apple showed off how all the A14 Bionic's features will piece of work in the iPad Air iv. Only it'southward all simply confirmed that the iPhone 12 will take the A14 Bionic, which means all these capabilities will come up to Apple's quartet of next-generation phones, just in a smaller format.

In brusque, nosotros're expecting the A14 Bionic to allow the iPhone 12 to deliver a serious heave in performance over its predecessor and use machine learning to deliver better app experiences and better photography.

The Android competition is non sitting withal, as the Samsung Galaxy S21 is expected to be the first to feature Qualcomm'south new 5nm Snapdragon 765 chip. But it will be difficult to catch upward to Apple's integration of hardware, software and third-party apps.